Archive for the ‘Firestone’ tag

As far as vintage ads are concerned, this has to be one of the best. While writing a Buyer’s Guide for Hemmings Muscle Machines, researching how the subject matter was received by the contemporary press of the day, I ran across this Firestone-commissioned piece in an early 1961 magazine. Needless to say, it was all-stop for the editorial staff as we poured over the image; a utopia for like-minded car spotters. Here is the full ad:

In spite of the print date, we’re guessing this picture was actually taken in 1959, or even as late as very early 1960. Call us crazy, but we counted at least 114 vehicles with distinguishing traits that make them identifiable; keen eyes may well exceed 125 or so if you are up for the challenge. Bonus points if you can tell us which track the sports cars are at in the background! Note the lack of protective barriers.

I love the old NG not only because of the beauty of the cars but it’s equally interesting to what verbiage was used back then to motivate people to buy their brand. With regards to older adds like found in the 30′s and so on when travel by car was becoming the rage it’s interesting how many adds there are from specific states inviting motorist to come see their state. In turn NG would do well written exposes about places like the Redwoods, or Niagara falls and so on which in turn motivated NG readers to travel. In short, NG had more to do with travel by car than one might think.

In the wake of the Ford Explorer/Firestone tire recall, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2003 began requiring manufacturers to submit information on deaths, injuries, lawsuits, recalls, reported defects and property claims.

For five years, the data’s been used by NHTSA in an early-warning database, and has initiated 24 safety investigations based on trends extracted from it. Now, due to pressure from Public Citizen and other NGOs, much of the data is being made public at SaferCar.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and other industry groups have long fought this, claiming it might divulge proprietary information – but it’s really more about being worried about perception over ongoing investigations.

After a long legislative battle, a compromise system will see warranty claims and consumer complaints to the manufacturer published online, while the last six digits of any VIN will remain undisclosed. However, a great deal of new information is now available, along with automatic e-mail and RSS updates.

We strongly support making as much information as possible available to car owners on general principle, but we would like to remind you not to get overly worried about preliminary investigations–they don’t necessarily reflect a real problem.

(This post originally appeared in the September 18, 2008, issue of the Hemmings eWeekly Newsletter.)